Some side project bands seem destined to appear. For example, when Kim Deal broke away from The Pixies to get some more of her music heard out from under the watchful eye of Frank Black, it made sense; when James Iha did the same thing a few years ago apart from...
Once every decade or so, a band appears seemingly from nowhere that mixes equal amounts of pop, punk and rock so perfectly – they hit that serene balance so evenly that it doesn’t fit easily under any of the aforementioned tags – that it compels the...
I actually like the Fall. It means a gnarly winter is on its way, but before it shows up there is just this sort of chill and beauty around that makes you stop and think for a bit about, I don’t know, life or something. The other thing about Fall is how much new...
There are ways of setting a tone for a film that paint a picture, and then there are ways of setting a tone that frame it – essentially encapsulating the entirety of the forthcoming proceedings and giving a clue as to what you’re going to see with a few...
From the opening false start of “Real Love,” an image instantly manifests in a listener’s mind that only gets set firmer when Lucinda Williams growls petulantly into her microphone. If it can bee assumed that 2007’s West was, in fact, a stoic...
It has been said so often at this point that it might as well be a mantra in music criticism: “Of course AC/DC records still sell well – they`ve made the same one nineteen times.” On the surface, it certainly seems that way – one can construct a...
There are ways of setting a tone for a film that paint a picture, and then there are ways of setting a tone that frame it – essentially encapsulating the entirety of the forthcoming proceedings and giving a clue as to what you’re going to see with a few...
At Ground Control, we've become big fans of Cat Power for any number of reasons; the video for “Lived in Bars,” the fact that she's actually able to complete a live set now, her unparalleled taste and vision for cover songs, and—most...
When a friend of mine suggested to me that I go check out Bullet For My Valentine at the Warfeild Theater with him, I was a bit hesitant. I really hate to say it, but it seems that most of today's metal bands just don't seem to have that spark, or special...
Fans and critics alike have always wondered: “How much input does any given artist have in the track selection of a greatest hits or best-of compilation?” The question’s both obvious and reasonable, any fan can tell you that usually such sets are...